77 Quotes by Lucia Berlin

I can't handle you being dead, Ter. But you know that.

Watcha gonna do when I'm gone, Maggie?" you kept asking over and over, the other time, when you were going to London."I'll do macrame, punk.""Whatcha gonna do when I'm gone, Maggie?""You really think I need you that bad?""Yes," you said. A simple Nebraska statement.

Only Americans smile all the time.

Aunque nos conociéramos... hacíamos como si no. Esperábamos en la cola, mientras las otras compraban jarabe para la tos de hidrato de terpina con codeína y firmaban en el aparatoso libro de registro. A veces con el nombre verdadero, a veces con uno inventado. Me daba cuenta de que, igual que yo, tampoco sabían cuál de las dos cosas era peor. A veces veía a la misma mujer en cuatro o cinco farmacias distintas en un solo día. Mujeres o madres de adictos.

If there is ever anything you want to know, you just ask me and we'll find the answer in a book." This was a wonderful thing to hear and I believed her.

It has been seven years since you died. Of course what I'll say next is that time has flown by. I got old. All of a sudden, de repente. I walk with difficulty. I even drool. I leave the door unlocked in case I die in my sleep, but it's more likely I'll go endlessly on until I get put away someplace. I am already dotty.... It's not so strange that I talk to my cat but I feel silly because he is totally deaf.

Existe un vínculo entre los pacientes de diálisis, como entre los alcohólicos anónimos o los supervivientes de un terremoto. Son conscientes del indulto, se tratan unos a otros con más ternura y respeto que la gente normal.

Sally wasn't crying about their dead mother or her cancer. She was crying because her husband, Alfonso, had left her after twenty years for a young woman. It seemed a brutal thing to do, just after her mastectomy. She was devastated, but no, she wouldn't ever divorce him, even though the woman was pregnant and he wanted to marry her. "They can just wait until I die. I'll be dead soon, probably next year..." Sally wept but the ocean drowned out the sound.

Everywhere risk and defiance weave through the most mundane daily affairs.